"Italia! Italia! O tu cui feo la sorte Dono infelice di bellezza, ond'hai Funesta dote d'infiniti guai Che in fronte scritti per gran doglia porte."
But there is something heavy and slow in the continuation and conclusion.
Superior in general excellence, though not possessing the inimitable pathos of the passage just quoted, is the sonnet beginning:
"Dov'è, Italia, il tuo braccio? e a che ti servi Tu dell' altrui? non è, s'io scorgo il vero, Da chi t'offende, il difensor men fero, Ambo nemici son, ambo fur servi."
Another sonnet on the same subject opens very impressively:
"Vanno a un termine sol, con passi eguali, Del verno, Italia, e di tua vita l'ore; Nè ancor sai quante di sua man lavore A tuo danno il Destin saette e strali."
"Sono, Italia, per te discordia e morte In due nomi una cosa; e a si gran male Un mal s'aggiunge non minor, che frale Non se' abbastanza, nè abbastanza forte."
Christina, Queen of Sweden, took up her residence in Rome after her abdication, and delighted in attracting a brilliant circle to her Court. Filicaia does not seem to have left his native city, but she extended her patronage to his sons, and he celebrated her munificence in many odes, and wrote a noble Sonnet on her death. In one of his poems he exhorts Rome to rejoice in Christina's presence:
"Non lungi là dal gelido Boöte Sorse indi a poco imperiosa Stella, Ma fausta si, che se mentir non vuoi, Dire a ragion tu puoi: Antica Roma, a par di te son bella."
Filicaia received immense praise and universal renown for a series of Odes on the Liberation of Vienna from the Turks by John Sobiesky, King of Poland, in 1683. No lyric poems in the Italian language are more universally known. They are undoubtedly splendid and effective compositions. They inspired Wordsworth with the following Sonnet:
'Oh, for a kindling touch from that pure flame Which ministered, erewhile, to a sacrifice Of gratitude, beneath Italian skies, In words like these: 'Up, Voice of Song! proclaim 'Thy saintly rapture with celestial aim; 'For lo! the Imperial City stands released 'From bondage threatened by the embattled East, 'And Christendom respires, from guilt and shame 'Redeemed, from miserable fear set free 'By one day's feat, one mighty victory. 'Chant the deliverer's praise in every tongue; 'The Cross shall spread, the Crescent hath waxed dim, 'He conquering, as in joyful Heaven is sung; 'He conquering through God, and God through Him.'"